Thursday, August 26, 2010

Keep your books and notes

While the extra money in your pocket from selling your books might be nice, having them with you as an intern will prove far more useful, if you can afford it. Your undergraduate books will be invaluable resources for information you need as an intern, and will be in a format you are familiar with, which will save you time. Your internship books won't necessarily have everything your other books had, and vice-versa.

You should also save all of the notes you took in your classes. Being able to go back and look up that obscure bit of information your professor told you that wasn't in the book can be crucial. Being an intern is a lot of work, and having as many resources available to you as possible will make things go much more smoothly.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Rotations are surprisingly short.

The rotations in your internship will likely be much shorter than you expect. Tomorrow is the last day of my current rotation, and I'm surprisingly sad that it's ending. It was a rotation that I wasn't initially completely happy with, but now that I've built relationships with the people I've been working with and the members of the community, I'm sad to go. The people you work with can make all the difference in the world, and when you abruptly reach the end of a rotation, it can be sad.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Management is part of dietetics

Dietetics requires you to know more than just nutrition. Foodservice management is a big component; you need to understand how to run a kitchen, and how to keep both the food and your employees safe. Management flows over into community as well; business plans and program development require management skills as well. And in medical nutrition therapy, if your goal is job advancement, management will likely become one of your duties as well.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Clients may truly appreciate things that you take for granted

As people in the field of dietetics, we have a tremendous amount of knowledge about food and nutrition, and often take all of that knowledge for granted. Something you may take for granted, such as being able to easily scan a nutrition facts label and immediately find the information you were looking for might be a huge accomplishment to learn for a client. I was very surprised to be thanked profusely today for a simple recipe, and for a handout on how to estimate portion sizes using common household objects. These are things I did not consider remarkable, and that are basic knowledge for me, but to the person who I gave this information it was tremendously helpful. Don't underestimate just how valuable even your basic knowledge is.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Helpful online tool for research papers

One of my favorite, most used websites when writing research papers is Son of Citation Machine. This website is a great time saver when you need to cite many sources in a paper, as it helps you format almost any type of citation.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Public speaking

Dietetics, especially community dietetics, involves a lot of public speaking. Working with a community population, it's often not cost effective for a dietitian (or intern, or volunteer) to work with people one on one. Group sessions, which involve speaking to many people at the same time, are a cost and time effective way of dispensing nutrition education to a community. So if you're the type of person who becomes very uncomfortable any time they have to give a presentation, be prepared to have to do many, many presentations during an internship. All of the presentations and talks you do during your undergraduate and volunteer work, such as powerpoint presentations, teaching demonstrations, speeches and group lessons will help better prepare you for work during the community rotation of an internship. While I was nervous presenting a talk on calcium to 70 people, due to all of the experience I've had presenting I was able to speak confidently in a daunting setting. So take advantage of your speech classes, your nutrition education and communication classes, and every presentation you have to do in school. They will all serve as good practice for being an intern.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Volunteering: Aim for clinical hours

Even if you want to be a community or foodservice dietitian, if you're aiming for an internship clinical (hospital work, or work with patients related to medical nutrition therapy) volunteer or work hours are valued very heavily. This is something I had recommended to me strongly, and one of my biggest regrets from my undergraduate time is not getting clinical experience, in addition to the community and foodservice experience I had.

To get clinical experience, you will likely need to plan ahead. When looking for short term volunteer opportunities I was turned down by two hospitals because I was unable to commit six months or longer to be a volunteer at their facility. So the sooner you look into getting clinical experience the better.

One of the main reasons clinical experience is valued was told to me directly by the director of an internship program: internships want you to have been exposed to a setting in which you worked with ill patients. An internship program does not want to have you quit half way through because you decided you were uncomfortable working with sick people.

While a variety of volunteer and work experience is good, do your best to make getting clinical experience a priority.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

You learn a lot from the people you work with.

Learning doesn't come just from textbooks and lectures. Working in the field, with actual people, be it as a volunteer, intern or employee, can teach you a lot.

Working at Camp Setebaid with kids with type one diabetes helped me gain a better understanding of just what it's like for someone to live with type one diabetes; an understanding I couldn't get from reading my medical nutrition therapy textbook. The amount of time and effort it took on behalf of the counselors, counselors in training, doctors and dietetic staff to help the kids manage their diabetes was staggering. And the amount of effort the kids themselves put in was monumental as well. These kids, as young as eight, worked so hard to carb count, adjust their insulin and adapt to what their blood sugar was, all while enjoying camp to the fullest. And getting to be a part of it gave me a much greater appreciation of just how strong these kids are.

I couldn't have had that experience without the kids I got to help at camp. The kids I worked with and helped teach taught me things a textbook never could. And that is part of why volunteering and doing an internship are considered so important to the dietetic profession; they teach you things you wouldn't otherwise learn.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Gone Camping

Starting tomorrow I'll be interning at Camp Setebaid. So no posts to come until next weekend!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Internship rotations can be surprising

Just because an internship is typically made up of community, foodservice and medical nutrition therapy doesn't necessarily mean you'll simply be doing three rotations at three sites. Be prepared to have rotations be split up, to be sent on "field trips" to see other interns' sites, and for lots of other things that may be thrown at you. Perhaps my most surprising rotation is the one I'll be doing next week: interning at a camp for kids with type one diabetes. It's a part of my community rotation that I couldn't have even imagined a year ago. So be aware that your internship may have many twists and turns throughout the course of it.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Portfolio: Keep copies of everything

Creating a portfolio is required by some dietetics classes, and having a portfolio containing copies of the work you've done is a valuable asset for the future. But the more time you spend in school, the easier it is to lose track of past work and end up with a sparse portfolio despite all of the work you've done.

One regret many people have as they progress through their undergraduate education is that they lose track of the work they did during previous semesters and when volunteering in the past. So as soon as possible, start keeping copies, particularly electronic copies, of all of your school work, regardless of the subject. An English paper you wrote might just cover the "term paper" requirement needed when submitting your portfolio to your instructor.

Your past work will serve not only as valuable examples to include in your portfolio, but can also be useful in the future. A handout about sodium I created during my undergraduate work only needed minor tweaking before I was able to hand it out to the population I'm working with in my community rotation. I saved myself a lot of work by keeping an electronic copy of that handout, instead of having to do the same work again to make a new handout.

All of your past work will serve you well in the future, so be sure to keep copies of it for when the need arises.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Study to know and understand.

While grades are important, as an undergraduate it's important to study not only to get good grades, but also to know and understand the material. When you're an intern the people you work with will throw tons of questions at you, including ones you could never have thought you would be asked. This is where it's so important to understand all of the aspects of your DPD classes. A coworker might ask you at lunch if he should be eating carbs after a workout, in addition to the protein supplement he already takes. And a community member attending a class you are teaching might ask what exactly an amino acid is, and how it's different from the acid in fruits. And the better you know your stuff, the more easily you'll be able to answer their questions.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Keep your social support intact.

Starting an internship is a major life change. It's the beginning of a shift from being a student, to being an employee. Even if you intern at the same school where you completed your undergrad work, and especially if you intern in a new place, having social support is important. Being a dietetic intern is hard work, and it's important to temper that hard work with fun and social activities too. So keep in contact with your undergraduate colleagues, your teachers, your mentors, and the people you volunteered with. Call or e-mail them and let them know how you're doing. Your friends and family will be happy to hear how you are doing, and it'll help give you a break and some peace of mind as you adjust to being an intern.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Have a back up plan

Try not to just pay lip service to it. I talked a fair amount about the different options I had if I didn't get an internship, but despite that I really did not have a back up plan. I knew that I had options, but I had no idea what direction I would go, after not matching. Even if it's as simple as deciding to apply again in half a year after not matching, knowing a specific direction to go if you don't match may help you better use your time before applying again.